Autobiography of Luis de Carvajal the Younger

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Luis de Carvajal the Younger (1567?-December 8, 1596) was the nephew of Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva, the governor of León, Mexico. The Carvajals are the best known conversos (‘New Christians’) in colonial Mexico, largely owing to Luis the Younger’s testimony at his trial before the Inquisition in 1595. He denounced more than 120 individuals as crypto-Jews—people who secretely practiced their old faith while publicly purporting to follow another faith—including members of his own family. He and many of his family were burned at the stake in 1596. These three documents bound together in one volume are believed to be the only extant writings by a Jew in Mexico during the Spanish colonial period. They include Carvajal’s autobiography (written under the pseudonym Joseph Lumbroso), Maimonides’s 13 principles of the faith, the Ten commandments, and a prayer manual drawn from the Old Testament. The volume is owned by the Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico). Exhibited: The First Jewish Americans: Freedom and Culture in the New World, New-York Historical Society, October 28, 2016-February 26, 2017. Translation: Cohen, Martin A. "The Autobiography of Luis De Carvajal, the Younger." American Jewish Historical Quarterly 55, no. 3 (1966): 277-318. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23875621 (accessed October 31, 2016)., Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico)